Margus Hunt is the best all-around athlete in the NFL Draft. That shouldn't be a surprise, given that his past includes being one of the best all-around athletes on the planet.

Hunt, a native of Estonia, is one of three foreign-born defensive end prospects who have a good shot of hearing their name called during Thursday night's first round. He has taken the most unusual path to the podium of the group, one that included a stop at a different podium.

Before the 25-year-old Hunt late-bloomed at Southern Methodist, he starred in the hammer, discus and shot put at the 2006 world junior track and field championships. The training he had done in his home country and nearly 5,000 miles away in Dallas prepared him well for the NFL's "Underwear Olympics," the Scouting Combine, in February.

His numbers in Indianapolis set the gold standard for "workout warriors." In addition to measuring 6 feet, 8 1/8 inches and 277 pounds, he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.6 seconds, completed 38 reps in the 225-pound bench press, recorded a vertical jump of 34.5 inches and broad-jumped 10 feet, 1 inch.

"With the actual workout, the 40, and all that, I definitely felt more at home than anything else," Hunt told Sporting News. "I had been competing like that for 10 years in my life, and I knew how to get my mindset right."

Hunt's strength and athleticism helped get him a football tryout and subsequent scholarship at SMU, but it took mental fortitude for him to make a successful transition. After competing in an individual sport for so long, Hunt had one thing in mind: Work hard to deliver for his new teammates.

"I needed to learn the game, the language of the game," Hunt said. "I had to learn everything about football from scratch and pick it up fast so I could contribute to the team as a player on Saturdays."

The discipline he developed while competing in a diverse set of sports helped him meet those challenges and thrive in his new sport. He also swam and played basketball and soccer before college, so the footwork and handwork needed to play end were already ingrained in him.

His football ability first showed up in a unique way. With his height and good coaching, Hunt developed a knack for disrupting field-goal attempts and punts. He blocked seven kicks as a freshman in 2009, one away from the NCAA single-season record, and had 17 for his career, two off the NCAA mark.

"We had a great defensive line, so we were able to push the pocket and offensive line back," Hunt said. "We could get to the ball and elevate from there. We took pride in taking points of the board, and it something that was taught every single year."

Last season, batting down balls were all the rage in another part of Texas, where Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt swatted passes en route to NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors. This is an area of untapped potential for Hunt, who said that the technique wasn't part of the game plan at SMU. Ends were told not to jump but instead stick with their pass rush. Also, the Mustangs’ opponents in Conference USA limited opportunities by not making many short or intermediate throws.

Watt, San Francisco's Aldon Smith and Dallas' DeMarcus Ware are some of the NFL players Hunt has admired while growing in the game. He showed that he can be a prolific edge rusher in his own right with eight sacks as a senior in 2012, including two in his final game for SMU, an MVP performance against Fresno State in the Hawaii Bowl.

NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock thinks Hunt's best NFL future is at Watt's position in the 3-4, or what Aldon Smith's teammate Justin Smith does for the 49ers. Speaking of the Niners, the defending NFC champions would be a great landing spot for Hunt at No. 31 overall.

"This is an explosive kid that could play a couple positions," Mayock said in a conference call last week. "He could play the base end, and he could play that 3-4 defensive end known as the five technique. There are a lot of teams excited about him because of his athleticism and his upside. Some teams look at the age and say that's not a negative because we have a more mature kid that's ready to come in and work."

When Hunt meets people in the United States, they have trouble pointing out exactly where Estonia is located. A quick geography lesson: It's one of the three Baltic states (on the Baltic Sea), along with Latvia and Lithuania, that used to be part of the former Soviet Union. Hunt grew up in the small town of Karksi-Nuia, well south of the capital, Tallinn, and near the Latvian border.

"We have been occupied for years by Russia, and have been only an independent country for about 20 years," Hunt said. "We're still on our baby feet."

Hunt joked that he's fielded questions about whether his homeland had electricity and roads when he was growing up. There is one thing that stands out as a source of national pride for Estonians, however, and it's something technologically savvy Americans use every day.

"Skype—we invented Skype," Hunt said.

That technology has helped bring today’s world closer together, but athletics have always done that. In Hunt’s case, the connection involved picking up his nation's track tradition, to competing abroad, to landing with a football team in the heart of football country. With the NFL's global reach expanding and Estonia still growing as a country, more such opportunities should follow.

"It's a tough path, definitely," Hunt said. "You have to be more in the high school and college system here than whatever country you're from. Hopefully, there are more options for international athletes to get a chance to do this."

Ezekiel Ansah, BYU

Ansah, who will turn 24 on May 29, has been playing football since only 2010. Adopting the Mormon faith as a teenager in Ghana led to him pursuing athletics at Brigham Young. Basketball didn't work out, track worked out a little better, but "Ziggy" found his niche with the Cougars football team. He had a breakout season in 2012 with 4 1/2 sacks and 13 tackles for loss. That got him on the draft radar, and postseason workouts from the Senior Bowl to the Combine cemented his first-round status.

Ansah now projects as a top-10 pick, and he has a fighting chance to go in the top five. Much like Hunt, he's enamored scouts with his size (6-5 1/4, 271 pounds) and agility. Knowing how early he may go, Mayock says decision-makers need to weigh Ansah's inexperience vs. his explosive potential.

"It scares me, and it scares teams how little he has played," Mayock said. "There is this tantalizing upside that's going to push him up pretty high. But I would tell you, Jason Pierre-Paul is a guy a few years ago that had this unbelievable upside, but he wasn't as raw. (Ansah is) really raw.

"What I like about Ziggy is he plays hard. He played a little out of position at BYU, and he's much more comfortable out wide."

Because he has the athleticism to handle a move to 3-4 outside linebacker, Ansah couldn't have had better timing to enter the draft. The Eagles (No. 4), Browns (No. 5), Bills (No. 8) and Saints (No. 15) are all transitioning to a 3-4, and the Cardinals (No. 7), Jets (Nos. 9 and 13) and Chargers (No. 11) need dynamic edge rushers for their version of the scheme. Given his skill set, he would work best initially complementing an established threat, such as the Bills' Mario Williams.

Bjoern Werner, Florida State

Werner, 22, was born in Germany, but his draft path is more traditional. He came to Tallahassee after starring for two seasons as a high school exchange student in Salisbury, Conn. He was an impact player all three of his seasons with the Seminoles, and he has the football smarts to match his experience against top-level competition.

Mayock calls Werner (6-3 1/4, 266 pounds) "the prototype 4-3 defensive end," which means he's a strong, quick-twitch pass rusher who also shows power and pop against the run. He would be an ideal fit at No. 19 with the Giants, the team that knows 4-3 ends better than anyone in the league and needs to replace Osi Umenyiora. Other teams to watch in Round 1 are the Vikings (No. 23 or No. 25), Broncos (No. 28) and Falcons (No. 30).